Bleed From Within - Era

This is an interesting one to write today. I rarely write about albums/artists that I don't like, I don't feel much value in digging at people who have worked long and hard to create something just because it's not for me. So as you can imagine I tend to just wax lyrical about why I like stuff and not much else. But with this album it's struck more than a chord, it's grasped me tightly, drawn me in on all fronts and really seriously got my attention. 

Maybe its the void that seems to have appeared in recent years in the metal/metalcore realm with mainly Bury Tomorrow holding down the fort, now with Bleed From Within back on top form that all changes, and the title becomes more intriguing than ever: Era.

This album boasts a running order full of metal goodness, its riffs galore from start to finish, I mean I don't think there's single song that doesn't have my foot tapping. The refinement and clarity amid the raging maelstrom that is Era, it just keeps hitting you again and again from the off.

Clarity, the opener, is brilliantly fierce and memorable but before you know it you're thrown into Crown of Misery, another heavyweight which leads you to the magnificent Castdown, which is possibly my favourite song of the entire album. It's just so interesting and intelligent, the writers brilliance on show in the jarring, contrasting notes beautifully arranged into this masterclass. Then you come into the heart of the album with the single Afterlife that I covered some weeks ago, follow this with the trio of Shiver, an anthemic piece, Bed Of Snakes, a stomping headbanging mess of wonderfulness and I Am Oblivion II. 

Largely the album is just full of great metal songs, there doesn't appear to be a single 'filler' track (a phrase I altogether hate whilst being annoyingly accurate at times) and this is no truer than with Alone In The Sun, a close contender for my favouritism. Its fierce, controlled aggression is really admiring and uplifting and leads you brilliantly in to the end of the album with Gatekeeper, the seductively dark Ruina and finally Alive.

Era has seriously been one of my favourite albums of the year so far, maybe even of the last 3/4 years in all fairness. It's an absolute masterclass on how to write a great metal album, intelligent, refined, brutal where necessary and hauntingly beautiful in others.

I think the album will launch them back in to the fans focus and certainly it won't be as long before we get the next!

Back from the past in a flash...
BTW Comeback: 8/10

Castdown, Afterlife, Gatekeeper

Era was released April 6th 2018 via Century Media:
bleedfromwithin.com/

You can check out my reviews of the singles Afterlife and Alive here:
bythesignofthespyglass.blogspot.com/2018/05/bleed-from-within-afterlife.html
bythesignofthespyglass.blogspot.com/2018/02/bleed-from-within-alive.html